Word.ws English Dictionary

barbative

barbative adjective: harshly critical or blunt; sarcastic.

Adjective

barbative (comparative more barbative, superlative most barbative)

  1. Harshly critical or blunt; sarcastic.
    • Most of the time he lay among the shadows, left the conversation to his elders. Except for those sudden, uncannily prescient, occasionally barbative, remarks. Uttered quietly but firmly.2002, Colleen McCullough, The October Horse, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, pages 580–581

Forms of barbative

comparativemore barbative
superlativemost barbative

Origin of barbative

Possibly a blend of barb, in the sense of "a cutting remark" and rebarbative (“repellent, irritating”).

Questions about barbative

What does barbative mean?
Barbative means harshly critical or blunt; sarcastic.
What part of speech is barbative?
Barbative is an adjective.

Words near barbative in the dictionary

  1. barbate
  2. barbated
  3. barbatic acid
  4. barbatimao
  5. barbatimaos
  6. barbative
  7. Barbato
  8. Barbatos
  9. barbats
  10. Barbaza
  11. Barbe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barbative (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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